Jabel Church built about 1650, the belfry was originally constructed with brick and had 3 bells. Two of the bells were taken out and the metal used in the war effort. The belfry was blasted away by advancing Soviet Tanks. The wooden belfry was rebuilt after the war. Pastor Scharnosky was extremely personable and he spoke some English and was able to converse with us about his church. They were too reconstructing and he was raising money in various ways to speed up the process of re-construction. He had built a dormitory that was used by church student groups that would come and visit this "kind of" lake resort area. He would then use the proceeds from the rental of this building to continue the re-construction process. The parsonage that Pastor lived in was a couple of hundred years old with ceilings barely higher than 5'8". Pastor Scharnosky personally handled 4 churches with services and had another 10 or so churches that were in disrepair and had no pastors or services. |